Welcome to the TUM Institute for LifeLong Learning Podcast

Episode 2 – Food Security in Singapore

• Dr. Alson Chng

In this second episode of our TUM Global series, we are joined by Dr. Alson Chng, Assistant Faculty Head of Chemistry at TUM Asia - TUM's first international Campus located in Singapore. We discuss the pressing topic of food security, and how the city state is at acute risk of disruptions in the global food supply chain. Dr. Chng also offers solutions that are being brought forward by the Singapore Government, and looks ahead to the role TUM Asia hope to play in securing sustainable food for the future through the harnessing of technology and by training the next generation as leaders in the global food system.
If you would like to find out more about food security and sustainability in Singapore, please see the following resources recommend by Dr. Chng:

• 30 by 30 policy Singapore Food Agency
• Food Security Map Agri-Food and Vetinary Authority Singapore
• Singapore Sustainable Food start up: Sky Greens
• Singapore Sustainable Food start up: Vertvegies
• Singapore Sustainable Food start up: Sustiner
• TUMAsia Website
• TUMAsia Sustainable Food

Episode 3 – The role of chemistry towards sustainable energy

• Professor Dr. Matteo Maestri

In this third episode of our TUM Global series, we are joined by Professor Dr. Matteo Maestri, Professor of Chemical Engineering at Politecnico di Milano, where his research group is part of Politecnico’s Laboratory of Catalysis and Catalytic Processes. We discuss the role chemistry plays in the energy sector, both in the chemical processes of carbon storage and release, and how chemists have intervened historically to progress the production and use of energy in society.
We also explore how catalysts, and the chemists behind them, will continue to play an important role in the current energy transition and the path towards a sustainable, carbon-neutral, future.
If you would like to find out more about chemistry and the energy transition, please see the following resources recommend by Prof. Maestri:

• The Age of Oil: The Mythology, History, and Future of the World's Most Controversial Resource by Leonardo Maugeri
• Energy for a Sustainable World: From the Oil Age to a Sun-Powered Future by Vincenzo Balzani and Nicola Armaroli
• CO2: Turning Lead into Gold? by Gianfranco Pachhioni (Italian only)

Music: "Beauty Inside" by Soundroll and "Celebration" by Zac Nelson
Artwork: Katharina Quitter

Episode 4 – Building Bridges: China to Germany

• Ming Huang

In this fourth episode of our TUM Global series, we are joined by Ming Huang a senior consultant, intercultural expert and executive trainer who has dedicated much of her career to developing close ties between German and Chinese enterprises, whether they are looking for investment opportunities, internationalizing their businesses or finding partners.
We discuss the importance of the German-Chinese relationship, and gives insights into how we might build fruitful and sustainable long term partnerships with businesses and contacts in China.

For further reading on the topic, please see the following resources recommended by Ming:

• The China Wave – Rise of a Civilizational State by Professor Zhang WeiWei
• Die Rätsel Chinas – Wiederaufstieg einer Weltmacht (in German) by Wolfgang Müller
• Reform: How did China Succeed? Video lecture by Nobel Prize winning Professor, Joseph Stiglitz
• Has China Won? (2020) and Has the West Lost? (2019) by Professor Kishore Mahbubani
• When China Rules the World by Martin Jacques
• Zukunft? China! and Shenzhen – Zukunft made in China (in German) by Frank Sieren


Music: "Beauty Inside" by Soundroll and "Celebration" by Zac Nelson
Artwork: Katharina Quitter

Episode 5 – Intelligent Transportation: Bengal to Bavaria

• Prof. Dr. Siddharth Mukhopadyay & Prof. Dr. Costantinos Antoniou

To help explore new opportunities and battle current challenges TUM and IIT Kharagpur founded the Indo-German Collaborative Research Center on Intelligent Transportation Systems in 2018, and have since extended this cooperation to IIT Bombay.
In this fifth episode of our TUM Global series we are joined by not one, but two experts in the realm of intelligent transportation systems – Professor Siddharth Mukhopadyay of IIT Kharagpur and Professor Costas Antoniou of TUM. What are the key issues they seek to tackle in this cooperation? … and how does combining Indian and German expertise help us achieve better and more sustainable transport systems?
For further reading on the topic, please see the following resources recommended by our guests:

• Chair of Transportation Systems Engineering at TUM (Professor Antoniou)
• Department of Electrical Engineering at IIT Kharagpur (Professor Mukhopadhyay)

Episode 6 – Neuroscience: From Cybernetics to the Future of Medicine

• Prof. Dr. Josef Rauschecker

Humans have long pondered how the workings of the human brain. Indeed evidence of holes drilled in skulls from our pre-historic ancestors suggests that attempts to heal pain, alleviate health issues and experiment with brain function is as old as we are.

Join us for this special episode with Professor Josef Rauschecker, of Georgetown University in Washington, where we explore the advancements made by neuroscience in recent years, and examine how accelerations in technology and interdisciplinary research has exciting implications for the future of human health. Josef has dedicated over forty years to the discipline of neuroscience, and was appointed as a TUM Ambassador in 2019 in recognition of his efforts. Originally a TUM graduate, and for many years a Hans Fischer Senior Fellow at the TUM Institute for Advanced Studies, we are delighted to name Professor Rauschecker as a firm member of our community.

On 27 June 2022, shortly after Prof. Josef Rauschecker’s podcast was recorded, one of Josef’s first teachers in the field of neuroscience, Sir Colin Blakemore of Oxford University passed away. Much admired all over the world for his pioneering studies in the early 1970s on the influence of early visual exposure on the development of our ability to see, Sir Colin was the youngest ever professor of Physiology at Oxford at the age of 35. Josef Rauschecker gained his first experience of single cell recordings in the cerebral cortex of young kittens in Blakemore’s laboratory at the University of Cambridge. He was invited by Blakemore to do his PhD thesis in his laboratory, but declined because his fiancée was waiting for him in Munich.

It is also important to note that Prof. Rauschecker‘s tinnitus project with Prof. Weber received an enormous boost through the arrival of Prof. Barbara Wollenberg, Director of the Department of Otorhinolaryngology, at the Klinikum rechts der Isar in 2019. She and her team will collaborate in this research project, which will raise the profile of the ENT clinic in the field of tinnitus.

If you are interested to find out more about neuroscience please see the following resources recommended by Professor Rauschecker:
• “The Beatles’ Surprising Contribution to Brain Science.” by Jon Hamilton
• “Klara and the Sun” by Kazuo Ishiguro (2021)
• “Principles of Neural Science”, 6th Edition, by Eric Kandel (2021)


Music: "Beauty Inside" by Soundroll and "Celebration" by Zac Nelson
Artwork: Katharina Quitter

Episode 2 – ArbITer: Informatics and Refereeing

• Dr. Otto Kolbinger

In this episode we speak to Dr. Otto Kolbinger, a research associate at TUM’s Chair of Performance Analysis and Sports Informatics. We dive into one of the fastest developing and most controversial areas of sports: Technological Officiating Aids (TOAs). Dr. Kolbinger shares insights from his research on the use of technology in sport to support refereeing and umpiring decisions. We discuss the drivers behind the use of TOAs, their impact on viewer experience and how it might be optimised to better serve competitors and spectators.
... as technology takes more and more of a role in competitive sport, will human referees ever become obsolete?
If you would like to find out more about TOAs or sports informatics in general please see the following resources as recommended by Dr. Kolbinger:

• Kolbinger, O. & Knopp, M. (2020). Video kills the sentiment—Exploring fans’ reception of the video assistant referee in the English premier league using Twitter data
• International Association of Computer Science in Sport
• International Society of Performance Analysis of Sport
• MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference

Episode 3 – The Science of Sport Equipment

• Bahador Keshvari M.Sc.

In this episode we speak to Bahador Keshvari, a researcher at TUM's Professorship for Sport Equipment and Sport Material - and discuss the importance of shoes to competitive sport, and the science behind their development.
Shoes play an important role in most disciplines, and there use in athletics has become ever more controversial as materials science pushes performance of competitors beyond what was previously possible.
What drives the development of sport shoes? ... and how can they be designed to help athletes be more safe and successful?
If you would like to find out more about sport materials, or the importance of shoes in competitive (and uncompetitive!) sport, please see the following resources recommend by Bahador:

• McDougall, C. (2010) Born to run
• TUM Professorship of Sport Equipment and Sport Materials
• “Knee simulator should save body joints” (2014) Professor Lames discussing research on the Discovery Channel

Episode 4 – How to Fuel an Athlete

• Helena Engel M.Sc.

In this episode we dive into the world of sport nutrition. We speak with Helena Engel, a researcher from TUM’s Professorship for Exercise, Nutrition and Health and an active sports nutritionist working within the German Ski Association.
Helena tells us about her research in the area of “energy balance” and the importance of ensuring athletes get the right food to meet the high energy demands of Alpine skiing. Listen in to find out more about the importance of nutrition to athletes and the science behind calorie consumption during a grueling season in the mountains.
If you would like to find out more about sport nutrition, please see the following resources recommend by Helena:

• Burke, L. (2007) Practical Sports Nutrition
• Jeukendrup, J. (2018) Sport Nutrition

Episode 5 – Burning the Fat

• Prof. Dr. Henning Wackerhage

In this episode we speak to Professor Henning Wackerhage, Head of TUM's Professorship for Sport Biology and a passionate Molecular Exercise Physiologist. We discuss the rather fascinating world of fat, its importance to the body in its regular use and also a new area of research that seeks to uncover the hidden thermal properties of brown fats.
What is there behind some forms of fat that we previously didn't know? ... and how can these properties be utilised to make us healthier and perform better? If you would like to find out more about sport nutrition, please see the following resources recommend by Professor Wackerhage:

• Wackerhage, H. (editor) (2014) Molecular Exercise Biology
• TUM Professorship for Exercise Biology
• “The Sports Biologists” (Podcast of the TUM Professorship for Exercise Biology)

Episode 2 - Alternative Fuels (in German)

• Prof. Dr. Burger

(PODCAST IN GERMAN) In this episode we speak with Professor Jakob Burger, Director of the Laboratory of Chemical Process Engineering at the Campus Straubing for Biotechnology and Sustainability. We explore the topic of alternative fuels and ask what contribution they can make to the future of energy supply and mobility. We explore Campus Straubing’s role as a serious player in the race for significant global emission reduction and climate neutrality by 2050. In doing so, we find that there might be more to the future of sustainable mobility than we think…

Further resources:

Episode 3 – The Changing Face of Energy

• Susanne Kurowski, M.Sc.

In this episode we speak with by Susanne Kurowski, a researcher at TUM’s Professorship for Innovation & Technology Management. She shares her insights into a transition to clean energy, the start-ups driving these changes and their struggles with sourcing funding and surviving the “Valley of Death”. If you want to find out more, please see the following articles recommended by Susanne during the podcast:

Episode 4 – Political Regimes & Digitainability

• Professor Stefan Wurster and Dr. Markus Siewert

(PODCAST IN GERMAN)
In this episode we speak with Professor Stefan Wurster and Dr. Markus Siewert from the TUM Professorship for Policy Analysis. Within two halves of the podcast we explore ecological sustainability in autocracies and democracies, what can we learn by comparing political regimes both internationally and within federal systems? In the second half of the podcast we explore the pressing topic of "Digitainability" and how TUM looks to play a leading role in the design of digital and sustainable transformation processees, bringing together two megatrends and the promotion of sustainable digitilization. If you want to find out more, please read more about the Professorship for Policy Analysis, and the project Digitanability here:

Episode 5 – Urban Mobility & the 15 Minute City

• Elias Pajares M.Sc.

In this episode we speak with Elias Pajares, a researcher from the TUM Chair of Urban Structure and Transport Planning and co-founder of Plan4Better, a start-up whose offering helps urban planners analyse and design easier, better, and more open urban spaces.
We explore the topic of urban mobility, the concept of the 15-minute city and find out more about Plan4Better’s key software offering “GOAT” and how it is helping urban planners and decision makers shape more sustainable cities for the future.
If you would like to find out more about sustainable urban mobility and planning, check out the following resources recommended by Elias:

Episode 6 – Green City of the Future

• Dr. Simone Linke

In this episode we speak with Dr. Simone Linke, Research Fellow at the TUM Chair of Energy Efficient and Sustainable Design and Building, and an expert in urban design.
Dr. Linke shares insights into her current project, “Green City of the Future”, where she works in an interdisciplinary team looking at how green infrastructure can help cities be better adapted and protected in the face of climate change. How can we better plan and build cities to be more green? What are the tangible benefits? … and what is getting in the way?

To read more about the project and sustainable urban planning, please see the below: